The Golem Mage

The news of the Gordon boys stealing from an Overlord-ranked demonic beast had spread throughout the entire academy by nightfall.

Those who had previously been beaten up by Arthur and Brandon felt a cold shiver run down their spines upon hearing it, they suddenly realized they had survived an encounter with a group of madmen—because no normal high-rank mage would dare provoke an Overlord-class demonic beast not to talk about a bunch of mid rank mages.

In the Second Dimension, Overlords were not only leaders of their respective races in specific regions, but they also possessed the bloodline and strength to back their position, most Overlords existed at the peak of Tier 9, desperately seeking that final step to ascend into the Monarch realm.

Once they succeeded in doing so, they would no longer be confined to one region but would join the ranks of their race’s rulers—assuming their race already had Monarch-level powerhouses, which was more common among humanoid abyss races.

The academy buzzed with discussions, and the Gordons became the center of gossip.

Stories about them ran wild—some exaggerated the wealth they had acquired from their adventure, others their recklessness.

The one most pleased with all the attention was Terran, who had found a brand-new topic to brag about the next time he drank with Elder Alfred.

He felt like he has been on a winning streak lately—because not only had he received rare mental pills from Old Man Alderic to aid his mental image recovery, but now, his students had become the academy’s most talked-about figures, while other masters might have been worried that their students were now being hunted, Terran felt the opposite.

To him, the fact that the forces of the Second Dimension were already reacting to his disciples only meant one thing: they were on the right path.

Pride lit up his face as he listened to Arthur narrate their adventure to other Gordon clan members who hadn’t gone with them, if Old Man Alderic were to see him now, he’d probably bury him underground all over again.

Old Man Alderic had long believed that Terran was a bad influence on Alec, if he had any say in the matter, he wouldn’t have hesitated to place Alec under the guidance of a more experienced instructor.

The only problem was that, despite everything, he couldn’t think of anyone more suited to handle Alec than Terran.

Terran wasn’t exactly the ideal role model for a teacher, in fact, the number of lectures he had given to the Gordon boys could be counted on one hand, but somehow, he had managed to bond with them in a way that worked.

At the top of Terran’s peak, a strange yet heart-warming scene was playing out.

All of his disciples sat around a bonfire, sharing stories of their recent adventure, Knights and Endrick who stayed behind couldn’t help but feel envious, not of the danger their peers had faced, but of the rewards they had gained as they felt they could have had a share in the bounty if they were there too.

Alec had generously gifted both Arthur and Brandon two million student credit points each, claiming he didn’t urgently need the extra.

Alec himself had only taken one million credits from the total sum he’d negotiated out of Old Man Alderic, a figure so large it almost made Terran consider becoming a beggar.

Lying in a hammock near the fire was the young Minotaur prince, silently listening to the conversation.

Lately, he had been growing restless, and the chaotic lives of the Gordons were his main source of entertainment, despite his cold demeanour—no doubt a result of his bloodline—he was still a child at heart, having only recently been born, even if he had spent a very long time in hibernation, growing up around humans had clearly begun to shape his behaviour.

Arthur took on the role of storyteller, while Brandon sat nearby cultivating in silence, away from the bonfire.

Alec, the third and most central figure of the recent heist, had retired early to bed, leaving the others to bask in the warmth of camaraderie and flames.

Though that was what Alec told his master, he had given a different explanation to his inner circle, tonight, he planned to enter the third level of the Beast Forest, he had been postponing this for a while, but now he finally felt ready to take on the challenge.

–

Inside the amulet world, Alec smiled as he realized that all six branches of the Primordial Ancient Tree had borne fruit after successfully refining the corpses he left behind for them.

Each branch now held a massive flower—an unusual occurrence, since every main branch has up to twenty sub-branches capable of refining a corpse each.

But Alec understood what this meant: such a transformation only happened when the tree branches were fed corpses of a higher realm than its current level.

Each of the six branches had refined a Tier 7 goblin corpse he had obtained during the last Moon War in Estonia City, with an unfamiliar new competition approaching, Alec was beginning to feel the pressure to push forward and not slack off.

That was why he aimed to refine higher-tier corpses—to obtain higher-grade cultivation pills, which held far more energy than the Tier 6 ones he usually consumed for boosting his cultivation.

While the jump in potency between Tier 6 and Tier 7 pills was significant and could overwhelm a normal mage, Alec had no such concerns.

Because thanks to his system, he could absorb and convert pill energy directly into experience points, all he had to worry about were the lingering impurities that would gather in his body after taking that much pills as he was still hell bent on having a stable foundation.

[> Pay 600,000 System Points to harvest your gains (Y/N)?]